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Clinton & Trump Barnstorm Must-Win Florida; Poll: Clinton Leads by 7 Points in North Carolina. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired October 26, 2016 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Behind me, you can see people lining up already here.

[07:00:08] But this is the second day of her campaign swing here on the heels of three straight days of campaigning by Donald Trump. Florida is at the center of his comeback plan. That's a plan she is trying to block.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It is so great to be back in Florida.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We're going to win the state of Florida.

ZELENY (voice-over): Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in a relentless fight for the golden prize of Florida's 29 electoral votes. Trump mincing no words on his view of those who choose Clinton.

TRUMP: Tell you what, you vote for her, you're crazy. OK? She is the worst.

ZELENY: Clinton releasing a new campaign ad narrated by Morgan Freeman, laying out a stark choice.

MORGAN FREEMAN, ACTOR: A steady hand or a loose cannon.

ZELENY: A new CNN/ORC poll shows seven in ten Americans now believe Clinton will win the White House. She's dismissing the poll but for different reasons than Trump.

CLINTON: It's going to be a close election. Pay no attention to the polls. Don't get -- don't get complacent.

ZELENY: With 13 days to go, Trump trying to turn the tables, seizing on news of skyrocketing healthcare premiums for Obamacare.

TRUMP: The rates are going through the sky.

ZELENY: Yet, Trump's argument that his employees were being crushed by Obamacare quickly fell apart. Most don't get insurance under the Affordable Care Act, a point he struggled to explain.

TRUMP: It's a small group, but it's a group that's having tremendous problems with Obamacare, because of what's going on with the going on with the premiums and what's going on with the deductibles.

ZELENY: In a Miami radio interview, Clinton said millions of Americans now have health care under the law but acknowledged major shortcomings that should be fixed, not repealed.

CLINTON (via phone): The costs have gone up too much. We're going to really tackle that.

ZELENY: It's an 11th-hour political headache hitting voters in the pocketbooks. Clinton ignoring health care at her rally, trying to keep the focus squarely on Trump and whether he's fit for office.

CLINTON (on camera): Americans are coming together at the very moment when Donald Trump is making an unprecedented attack on our democracy.

ZELENY: Former Republican secretary of state Colin Powell throwing his support behind Clinton. She tweeted that she's proud to have the endorsement of a decorated soldier and distinguished statesman.

All this as Trump and Vice President Biden trade fighting words.

BIDEN: The press always ask me, don't I wish I were debating him? No, I wish we were in high school, and I could take him behind the gym. That's what I wish.

TRUMP: Did you see where Biden wants to take me to the back of the barn. Me. He wants -- I'd love that. I'd love that. Mr. Tough Guy. You know, he's Mr. Tough Guy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY: Now, Clinton is waking up in Miami this morning on her 69th birthday. That is one year younger than Donald Trump. She attended the final fund-raiser of her campaign last night. It's 371 in all by our count.

For his part, Donald Trump is winding down his fund-raising operation. "The Washington Post" reports his campaign is pushing back on that, saying they are still raising money. He is simply not out there attending these events personally. But what he is doing today is attending the grand opening of his hotel in Washington, D.C. Off the campaign trail, at least this morning before he heads to North Carolina.

CAMEROTA: Jeff, thanks so much for teeing all that up for us.

Joining us now, our CNN political commentator and former Trump campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski; and CNN political commentator and vice chair of the state Democratic Party, Christine Quinn. Great to see both of you.

COREY LEWANDOWSKI, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Very quickly, why is Trump taking a break from the campaign trail and going to open his hotel? Why is that relevant? LEWANDOWSKI: Twelve and a half events in two days.

CAMEROTA: So in other words, it doesn't matter. He can take a little break?

LEWANDOWSKI: A break from the campaign trail. Please, give me a break. He's done 12 events in two days.

CAMEROTA: How many breaks are there in this moment?

LEWANDOWSKI: He has done more events in two days than Hillary Clinton has done in two weeks. Now we're saying he's taking a break? Give me a break. Give me a break.

CAMEROTA: You're upping the breakdown here.

LEWANDOWSKI: What does a break mean?

CHRISTINE QUINN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I actually think...

LEWANDOWSKI: Five days off and then getting ready? Twelve events.

QUINN: I don't think the point here is tit for tat and who did how many events. The optics of this are when we're in the home stretch, Donald Trump is focusing on his hotel opening, just like he did on the bay of Brexit. So it's weird messaging about what his priorities are.

CAMEROTA: OK. Meanwhile, here's another weird messaging moment, Corey, where he trotted out his employees to prove that they think, or that they experience Obamacare as a tremendous disaster.

But watch this moment and how it went wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: All of my employees are having a tremendous problem with Obamacare.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you provide health insurance for all your employees?

TRUMP: I do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So none of them are on Obamacare?

TRUMP (via phone): We don't even use Obamacare. We don't want it. People don't want it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: His employees don't use Obamacare. He provides health care. Come on, why was he using his employees to say...

LEWANDOWSKI: Here's the difference. Here's the difference: 1.53 million people in Florida are using Obamacare. And Humana, which is one of the carriers, you have a 36.8 percent increase... CAMEROTA: Corey...

LEWANDOWSKI: ... in your premiums.

CAMEROTA: I am going to get to the bottom of Obamacare, and there are many. But there are a lot. But why would he do this? Don't address it? Corey, come on, hold on a second...

LEWANDOWSKI: It's a great company. You get health care.

CAMEROTA: Hold on. Hold on. Explain...

LEWANDOWSKI: I don't get health care. I don't get health care.

CAMEROTA: Let me speak for one second. Explain to us inside the campaign who lets him do this? That was the wrong message. He wasn't even making the point that you're trying to make this morning.

LEWANDOWSKI: Nobody lets Donald Trump do anything. Don't kid yourself.

CAMEROTA: So he said, "I'm going to have a press conference with my employees and talk about Obamacare, is hurting them and nobody said, "Yoo-hoo, they're not on Obamacare."

QUINN: How does he not know that?

LEWANDOWSKI: They get health care through their company, which not every company offers.

CAMEROTA: I know that. Why doesn't he know that?

LEWANDOWSKI: He does know that.

CAMEROTA: Then why was he missing the wrong point about Obamacare?

LEWANDOWSKI: He was talking about generally.

QUINN: No, he wasn't. He was not.

CAMEROTA: Corey, wow.

QUINN: That's like verbal...

CAMEROTA: Hold on. But I want to get Obamacare for a second, because there are so many points that he could have made about what's wrong with Obamacare. Obamacare, the president said unequivocally, your premiums are going to go down.

No, they're not. Next year, on average, they're going to go up 22 percent.

The projections for how many people would be covered by Obamacare have not hit what they said the projections were. Now there's 20 million. It's not as high as they said it was going to be.

And companies are dropping out of Obamacare. Doctors are. It has not been a glowing success by any stretch. Is this going to be a problem?

QUINN: Unlike the Trump campaign, I'm not going to stand here and tell things that aren't really the truth, as we saw Mr. Trump do just yesterday. Are there problems with Obamacare? Absolutely.

CAMEROTA: How big of a problem for Hillary Clinton over the next 14 days?

QUINN: Let's be clear: there are problems, and we need to fix them. The fix isn't throwing it away and then making people uninsured, again. And in this race, clearly, the person with the biggest depth of knowledge around healthcare, the person who can fix this is only Hillary Clinton.

And look, you either have Donald Trump as it relates to Obamacare thinking his employees are a stunt, manipulating the truth; or you have a man who says he's a great businessman who doesn't even know if his company gives health care.

CAMEROTA: Yes, but you also have Hillary Clinton, who was part of the administration and part of supporting Obamacare that hasn't delivered. In other words, it makes voters wonder who they can trust.

QUINN: t has not been perfect. There's no question. Also, if you look at states like New York where the governor and the administration were fully committed behind it, the situation is very different than other states. Governor Cuomo in New York put an exchange together, committed to this.

We have one of the highest enrollment rates. That's not to say we're not going to fix it. Hillary, this is top of her list and I'm sure an enormous issue when she's looking at who will be the secretary of health and human services.

CAMEROTA: Corey, you can relax for one second. I have one more thing that I want to try to -- I know. I know.

LEWANDOWSKI: I'm ready.

CAMEROTA: Who am I kidding? I never let you slide.

LEWANDOWSKI: Before there was Obamacare, there was Hillarycare. Don't forget that.

QUINN: And the first, first Hillary effort brought many children across the country, and when she was first lady who would have had no...

LEWANDOWSKI: Pounce.

QUINN: You can't pounce against children wanting to have insurance.

CAMEROTA: Of course. Everybody wants children to have insurance.

QUINN: Thank you. LEWANDOWSKI: I want to talk about WikiLeaks, because there's been another WikiLeaks document dump that reveals these stolen e-mails from John Podesta. And in it, you find out that they are concerned when President Obama says he didn't know that Hillary Clinton had her own server, which he said on "60 Minutes."

Cheryl Mills says, "We need to clean this up. He has e-mails from her. They do not say state.gov."

Christine, did the president know or not?

QUINN: Look, I can't know exactly what the president knew or didn't know. And of course, Cheryl's going to be concerned when something like that is said. But the thing here about WikiLeaks and the whole e-mail issue is it has been discussed, reviewed, investigated.

CAMEROTA: But there are new revelations that come out every day.

QUINN: But they're basically retreads of old revelations from a series of information that was gained illegally, may have been gained for foreign involvement. In this case, you add in stolen, and there have been questions particularly raised by Donna Brazile and others about the veracity of these e-mails. So, there's a whole question...

CAMEROTA: Yes, I understand. You might reject the entire veracity, but they're not really doing that here.

But hold on. I've never seen Corey look so relaxed during a segment. He was actually just reclining.

LEWANDOWSKI: I'm going to take a nap.

CAMEROTA: You're taking a nap. But it does seem, according to the polls, that viewers, voters are not really fixating and zeroing in on all of these WikiLeaks revelations, because Hillary Clinton is ahead nationally in the polls, Corey.

LEWANDOWSKI: That's not lying. Because mainstream media has dedicated more time to the Donald Trump, you know...

CAMEROTA: Accusations.

LEWANDOWSKI: Accusations than anything else.

CAMEROTA: That's not relevant?

LEWANDOWSKI: Let's look at this. Don't forget: Donald Trump's taxes...

CAMEROTA: Have not been...

LEWANDOWSKI: ... stolen.

CAMEROTA: Have not been released.

LEWANDOWSKI: Stolen and put on the mainstream media. CAMEROTA: He could have revealed them.

LEWANDOWSKI: And nobody said, nobody said, "Oh, my goodness. This outrageous. This is stolen by the Russians," right?

QUINN: Well, the Russians -- there's no evidence that the Russians stole it.

LEWANDOWSKI: We don't know that. What we do know is unequivocally the Clinton campaign has come forward and not said these e-mails are wrong. They're not accurate, not appropriate.

What we do know is that the Clinton campaign is gravely concerned about the fact that she had a private server.

CAMEROTA: ... released his tax returns.

(CROSSTALK)

LEWANDOWSKI: John Podesta.

CAMEROTA: I have ten seconds.

QUINN: Two things, we keep talking...

LEWANDOWSKI: Go back to relaxing, Corey.

QUINN: We keep talking about Trump and the sexual accusations, because he keeps bringing it up. He could have given his speech the other day. He talked about suing.

LEWANDOWSKI: WikiLeaks.

CAMEROTA: Christine -- I hear you, Mr. Subliminal.

Coming up in our next hour, we're going to have former New York City mayor and Trump senior adviser, Rudy Giuliani. He's going to be talking to Chris. I'm sure it will not run off the rails like this, Chris.

CUOMO: Mr. Subliminal, that's my nickname. Il Subliminal. I told you that.

All eyes are on the swing states and for good reason. The polls are tightening there, and they are going to create the pivots that will lead to the victory in this election. So, what is the strategy of each campaign? We're going to ask a supporter of Donald Trump's from Congress. What's the Trump plan? Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:44] CUOMO: Politics and campaigning is about balancing good news and bad news. Trump is doing that right now. The good news: new poll in the state of Florida has him up for the first time in weeks. The Bloomberg Politics poll shows Trump leading Hillary Clinton in the state. You see it right there, two points. Margin of error makes it tight, but it's still good news.

Now, what does that say about what's working for him there and not working in a place that is on your screen right now. North Carolina. Clinton up by seven. Unusual for the Democrat to be ahead in North Carolina. Which we're about to discuss with our next guest, from the Tarheel State, Republican congresswoman, Donald Trump supporter, Representative Renee Ellmers.

Congresswoman, good to have you with us this morning. What is working in Florida for Donald Trump?

REP. RENEE ELLMERS (D), NORTH CAROLINA: Well, he's there in Florida right now, and I think there are a number of things that he is focusing on that Floridians want to hear about that, quite frankly, Hillary Clinton is bringing absolutely no enthusiasm to.

You know, her message of, you know, increasing taxes and moving forward with basically what we've had for eight years under Barack Obama just isn't doing it. And Donald Trump is out there talking about the issues that matter: making sure America is safe, making sure our borders are secure; making sure that we're fighting ISIS and doing what we need to do to support our military and veterans. You know, Obamacare.

This is a huge issue right now, as you know. People across this country are finding out what their premiums are going to be increased to in 2017 and, quite frankly, Hillary Clinton's plan, which of course it was Hillary Clinton's health care before it was Barack Obama's. You know, basically, she just is going to raise taxes and subsidize the insurance companies. I find it interesting when she talks about how Republicans want to replace and just put insurance companies back, you know, in charge. That is not at all what Donald Trump has planned.

CUOMO: Well, we're...

ELLMERS: And, in fact, it's one of those, you know, wink and a nod to the insurance companies. We're going to go after you.

CUOMO: A wink and a nod. That comes to the politicking of this. Donald Trump gets up there. He has his employees come out and he says, "Man, these people, they're really struggling under Obamacare." None of them are on Obamacare.

ELLMERS: Well, true.

CUOMO: The people who run his facilities say 99 percent of his employees get insurance like half this country does through its employers. Did he just not know that, or does he not understand how his businesses are run?

ELLMERS: I hear this every day. Thank goodness Donald Trump and his family and his -- and his business, that they are able to provide healthcare, other than the Affordable Care Act. Because if they did, he really would be in trouble, and that would be a lot to have to explain. CUOMO: Yes, but he brought his employees out. He brought his

employees out and said they're struggling under Obamacare and none of them are on it.

ELLMERS: He loves to bring his employees out, by the way, because they love him. But the issue here is who is on Obamacare? I hear it every day from families who are talking about other family members or a spouse or children that are on Obamacare that may be employed.

CUOMO: How many people do you think are on Obamacare? What do you think the break down is in the country?

ELLMERS: How many do I think?

CUOMO: Yes. How many people do you think have to get it from the individual market from the ACA? How many people do you think in this country? What percentage?

ELLMERS: You know, let me tell you. That is one of the questions that we have never been able to get a straight answer for.

CUOMO: I'll give it to you right now.

ELLMERS: One that I asked.

CUOMO: I'll give it to you right now. Forty-nine percent of the country gets it through their job. Thirty-four percent gets it through Medicare. OK?

Now you get into the individual market. It's 7 percent of the population. Of that 10.5 million people, 85 percent receive subsidies. So only when you reduce it to that smaller number, about 1, 1.5 percent of those who are looking for health care, that these premiums become a real issue. Little bit of a different picture.

ELLMERS: So now it's not the issue that we thought it was before.

CUOMO: No, no, no. It's what you thought it was. It's what you thought it was. I think it's misleading. I think having Trump come out with his employees who aren't on Obamacare is misleading or he doesn't know what's going on with his company.

ELLMERS: Basically, what he is talking about is what he is hearing. What he is hearing from his employees, family members of employees. Absolutely. Again, you know, I know this seems like, you know, it's the real faux pas here for Donald Trump.

CUOMO: You don't think it was?

ELLMERS: No. Absolutely not.

[07:20:01] CUOMO: So why did he bring his employees out and say they're really struggling under -- under Obamacare?

ELLMERS: Because he hears how people are struggling under Obamacare every single day. CUOMO: But those people aren't on it. Then why didn't he bring up

those people?

There's something wrong here, Congresswoman. It doesn't make sense. If I say, "Look, here's Renee Ellmers. She's a friend of mine. She's really struggling under Obamacare," and you're not...

ELLMERS: I'm not on Obamacare.

CUOMO: And you're not on it, that doesn't make any sense. At least you're on it, because Congress is on it.

ELLMERS: I'm part of Congress. Unlike Harry Reid's Senate and, you know, staffers that basically said, "Look, if the rest of America has to be under Obamacare, so do we." So yes, I am on Obamacare.

Here's -- here's the thing, Chris. And no matter how you try to spin it, there are people who are suffering under Obamacare. There are Obamacare premiums that are skyrocketing right now.

CUOMO: No question.

ELLMERS: We have to fix it.

CUOMO: Why haven't you fixed it? Why haven't you fixed it?

ELLMERS: Well, because Barack Obama is the president of the United States.

CUOMO: He kept asking you to work with your Democrat brothers and sisters and come up with fixes to a plan that was obviously going to have problems. And you trumpeted it dozens of times.

ELLMERS: Chris, Chris, this plan was due to fail from the beginning.

CUOMO: Thanks to your efforts of not wanting to make it any better.

ELLMERS: It was built on quicksand. It was a house of cards. No, there was never any foundation to it to begin with. You can't make something better that is dead on arrival. Remember three years ago with the roll out of the -- of Healthcare.gov. That was a disaster. It has been a disaster since day one. There is no fixing it.

I know the nice lady that was on in the previous segment talked about New York and how well it's working and, oh, gee, all we have to do is tweak it. Their premiums are skyrocketing. Over 80 percent. Eighty point five for one of the insurance companies.

CUOMO: Just one of the companies, but they have a choice.

ELLMERS: In North Carolina, we are down to one insurance company that is providing Obamacare.

CUOMO: Congressman...

ELLMERS: We need to make this fix. Put a safety net in place, gut the whole system and come back with patient-centered health care.

CUOMO: Congressman Ellmers, always a pleasure to have you make the case on NEW DAY. Thank you for being with us.

ELLMERS: Thanks for having me, Chris.

CUOMO: Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Hi, Chris. So what are is it that drives and worries Donald Trump? There are new revelations about the billionaire in just-released audiotapes from an extensive biographical interview. You'll hear them, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:07] CAMEROTA: Now to some newly released audiotape of Donald Trump talking candidly about Donald Trump. In an extensive and revealing 2014 interview with his biographer, Michael D'Antonio, Trump opens up about what drives him. That biographer will join us in a moment, but, first, our Kyung Lah has highlights from these tapes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: You vote for her, you're crazy. OK? She is the worst.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a Donald Trump we don't often see. Not campaigning, but, instead, contemplative. Like when he talks about how he won't accept losing.

TRUMP: You can be tough and ruthless and all that stuff. And if you lose a lot, nobody is going to follow you. Because you're looked at as a loser. Winning is a very important thing. And the most important aspect of leadership is winning. If you have a record of winning, people are going to follow you.

LAH: As we've seen this election, this is a leader who enjoys a fight.

TRUMP: I'd like to punch him in the face. I tell you.

LAH: And the tapes reveal that willingness to fight began as a child.

TRUMP: In eighth grade. I loved to fight. I always loved to fight.

LAH: Physical fights. All kinds of things.

MICHAEL D'ANTONIO, BIOGRAPHER: Arguments.

TRUMP: Any kind of fight. Including physical.

LAH: Ex-wife Ivana Trump also sat down for a rare interview. Ivana explained how six months into the relationship she saw how Trump reacted when she outskied him.

IVANA TRUMP, TRUMP'S EX-WIFE: And then ski instructor I told him. "Don't tell Donald that I can ski, OK?" Because his ego, it's so big. He's not able going to ski." I went two flips in the air, two flips right in the air in front of him. I disappeared. Donald was so angry. He took off his skis, his ski boots and walked up to the restaurant.

D'ANTONIO: So he left you?

I. TRUMP: Yes. He couldn't take it. He could not take it. He went foot bare up to the restaurant and said, "I'm not going to do this (EXPLETIVE DELETED) for anybody, including Ivana."

D'ANTONIO: oh, jeez.

LAH: For Trump, everything is a competition, especially business.

TRUMP: I never had a failure. Because I always turn a failure into a success.

LAH: The theme weaves through his interviews. Refusal to acknowledge any business failures.

TRUMP: I bought something and I throw it into a bankruptcy. I made an unbelievable deal. Wiped out a lot of the debt. Came back. The next day I read the story, "Trump files bankruptcy." I get all these people that don't understand business, saying, "Did you go bankrupt?"

Do you understand that?

D'ANTONIO: You talk about this a lot.

TRUMP: I do. I always do, because -- I'll tell you why I do. What always bothers me is false stuff. Untruths. That bothers me.

LAH: But what doesn't bother him: fame. Trump admits, he needs it.

TRUMP: It's happened from -- from the time I was fairly young.

D'ANTONIO: Did it unnerve you at first?

TRUMP: No.

D'ANTONIO: Or make you feel unsafe ever?

TRUMP: No. I think what would unnerve me, if it didn't happen.

LAH: Trump says he doesn't seem much need for reflection but takes a moment to talk about marriage.

D'ANTONIO: When you think about balancing your ambition and your relationships with people you love, what's changed over the years?

TRUMP: Well, it's very hard for somebody to be with me.

LAH: Ex-wife Ivana, in her interview, says what ended theirs after three children with him, Trump's affair with Marla Maples.

I. TRUMP: She's a stupid girl. She doesn't have brains. I have no idea what Donald was doing with her. But she broke us our marriage, because immediately when I find out his affair, I file for divorce.

D'ANTONIO: This is it?

I. TRUMP: I was the one, yes.